Ben Hill has experienced state meet improvement in each of his first three seasons with the Royal Oak cross country squad.

As a freshman, Hill placed 28th overall at state. He was 10th as a sophomore and last year raced to third place.

Now a senior in his last cross country go-around, Hill hopes to continue that state-meet climb.

"I definitely want to offer some competition to the (state-meet) front runners this year who are Grant (Fisher from Grand Blanc) and Ryan (Robinson from Waterford Mott)," said Hill, a three-time all-state runner. "They are running great times and I'm sure they are training really hard as well.

"I just really want to see what I can do," he added. "This is my last year and I just want to throw a good time out there and throw in a few good efforts late in the season."

Although this is a particularly strong senior class across the state for distance running, Royal Oak cross country co-head coach Dave Barnett believes Hill has the potential to win an individual state championship for a few reasons.

One, Hill has totally devoted his time and training to cross country after having played soccer as a freshman and contemplated the sport as a sophomore. Also, unlike last year, he enters this fall injury-free. Finally, he's just that talented.

"We're really excited about this season," Barnett said. "Not only is he healthy, but he's running more miles than he ever has. He's also been doing a lot of strength and flexibility training. So he's really on top of his game and definitely hitting on all cylinders.

"He's better than we've ever seen at this point in any season," he added. "I think he can be right with (Grant Fisher) when they come into the stadium (at MIS in the state finals). He's doing everything he can to prepare for that kind of duel to the finish. The potential is there to win the state title."

White Division win

Hill showed he's ready to retain his all-state designation by easily winning the first OAA White Division Jamboree of the season Tuesday afternoon. Running on his home course behind the high school, Hill outdistanced the field by 54 seconds.

The Ravens dynamo crossed first in a time of 16:05.1. Bloomfield Hills runners Michael Tremonti and Cooper Bellinson were second and third with times of 16:59.9 and 17:04.4, respectively.

While Hill was happy with his performance, he suggested he still has plenty left for the remainder of the season.

"I think it was a good effort, but it was more of a workout for me today," Hill said. "My coach told me to tempo the first two miles and I ended up tempoing the last mile, too. I was doing interval work right before (the race) and I took those a little faster than expected, so I kind of had to ring it in a bit because we have a big race Friday at MSU. That will be my first big race against state-caliber guys."

As a team, Royal Oak placed third.

Bloomfield Hills won with 31 points, followed by Rochester Hills Stoney Creek at 49 and the host Ravens, who earned 91 points.

After Hill's winning effort, the Ravens ran in a tightly-knit pack, taking the 21st through 26th spots.

"Our team is solid," Barnett said. "We were third and, on paper, that's about what we thought. Our runners, number two through basically number 11, do a lot of training together.

"They all ran hard today (in the White Division meet) and I think they were a little cautious and we're a little conservative," he added. "We want to be at our best at the end."

Team-oriented

Hill is determined to not only continue his individual success, but lead Royal Oak to the cross country state meet as a team. Hill was an individual qualifier last year. In his freshman and sophomore seasons, the Ravens qualified as a team; they finished 16th on each occasion.

"You know, winning the (individual) state meet is a possibility, definitely," he said. "This is my last year and I really want to give my best to my teammates and myself and my coaches as well and not leave anything to regret after I graduate.

"I'd love to get my team to states, too. We definitely have the possibility with the guys we have this year to get out of our regional," he added. "I'm really excited, because I think we have a good group of guys and we have a strong pack."

Hill is grateful for the high school experience and how it's allowed him to grow as a student-athlete.

"I think it's been a great experience, not just improving my running, but I think it's also helped me become a more focused student, too," Hill said. "It just kind of goes along with being a student-athlete.

"I think just setting a routine for yourself and getting stuff done and doing first things first," he said. "I've also been so blessed to have my two coaches and just some of the teammates who graduated before me who kind of paved the path for me to be where I am at now and set up for a really great year."

Hill climbing high

Royal Oak senior Ben Hill is a three-time all-state cross country runner. Following are his state-meet results prior to this season: